The Dragon's Roost

The Mental Excreta of Michael Cieslak

I Took A Little Time Off

Now I’m going to start off with something that most of you already know, I not really one for self-deprivation of any kind. I don’t skip shaving in November.1 I don’t fast or give up things for religious reasons.2 I don’t even do New Year’s Resolutions.3

That being said, it may have come as a bit of a shock to some of you when I sort of disappeared from social media at the end of the year. I took a bit of a break from the various on-line platforms.5 I also took a few days away from drinking and eating rich foods.

Now don’t be too impressed. As I already said, I don’t really give things up, not even for the end of the year celebrations. In reality, I was sick as Hell for a few days. Saturday, 29 December was spent entirely in bed. I went to sleep around 8 on the 28th, woke up at 2am to throw up, then spent the next 30 or so hours either asleep of emptying my stomach.

It wasn’t fun.

The worst part was that the few bits of time I spent awake, I was so out of it that I wasn’t able to focus on anything. I couldn’t write, I couldn’t read, I could not even focus on an audiobook. The best I could manage was to watch endless streams of YouTube videos and even then I don’t think I watched many all the way to the end. I know this because I would start one, then wake up hours later with the iPad battery mostly drained and my history showing that I had fifteen clips under my belt.

There was one benefit to this time away from everything. I felt very little pressure to worry about things that were outside of my control. This was probably a good thing since I spent the rest of the year working the day job. I also managed to avoid the temptation of all of the end of the year sales.6 This probably saved me some money, and more importantly, it kept me from having to sleep on the couch when the various items arrived.

Long story short, I enjoyed my time away, although I missed you all. Now that the calendar has rolled over, and my stomach is mostly back to normal, I will be back as usual.

Happy New Year everyone.

1 Not that anyone would be able to tell the difference.

2 Every year I give up religious observances for Lent.

3 Well, not really.4

4 Every year I make the same resolution: not to wear purple polyester pants in public. I don’t own purple polyester pants. I won’t ever buy purple polyester pants, so the possibility of me wearing them in public is negligible. The reasoning is as follows: no matter how shitty the year may be, I can look at the clock at midnight and say “At least I didn’t wear those stupid pants.”